Becoming a Credible Influence of Change with Nancy Murphy
Have you ever had an idea but didn't know how to implement it? Whether leading people or not, we can all influence others and bring ideas on how to best manage through change. Nevertheless, how can you establish credibility for your new ideas if you don't have the title? Whether you are an entrepreneur or an intrapreneur, this episode discusses how to overcome change and what it takes to succeed in business.
In This Episode You Will Learn About:
Leading Change At Every Level
3 Types of Resistance to Change and How to Overcome Them
Intrapreneurship and How is it Different from Entrepreneurship
What Every Successful Intrapreneur Needs
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Meet our Guest:
Nancy’s spent her career saying what others are afraid to – and learning to say it in ways that others will listen. She’s the founder and president of CSR Communications and creator of Intrapreneurs Influence Lab. Her passion is teaching leaders how to make organizational change stick. From challenging stereotypes of girls in her Catholic school more than 40 years ago, to her first job after college convincing nonprofits to engage youth volunteers, or her role as board chair of a global nonprofit transforming the way we do international development...
Nancy’s worked in philanthropy for Steve and Jean Case’s family foundation, as a federal government program officer with the Corporation for National & Community Service, and as a global consultant for APCO Worldwide, where she designed and implemented sustainability, community engagement and philanthropic strategies for companies such as UPS and Johnson Controls, and nonprofit organizations including W.K. Kellogg Foundation
and Annie E. Casey Foundation. Nancy mentors and advises executives from local governments, federal agencies, global nonprofits, foundations and Fortune 100 companies.
As a trainer and speaker, Nancy has shared her expertise from Kuala Lumpur to Kansas City and London to Las Vegas. She holds a master’s degree in public affairs from University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School, a master’s in health communication from Boston University, and a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from university of Dayton.
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Becoming a influence of change
When you really want to influence change, there's a lot of moving parts to it. There's some people that are really adapt to change, and they thrive in a changing environment and then there's other people that say, “well, that's not the way we've always done it.” Then that resistance could then hinder movement within an organization. I'm an advocate of, “I don't want to always do the same thing I've always done, I want to continue to evolve and innovation and move forward.”
One of the things I work with leaders on a lot, even those of us who say we love change, and we've got that growth mindset, and we're very open to try new things, and innovative and all of that, I guarantee you, there is at least one area of your life where you are resistant to change. We all have it. So I always encourage those leaders who are like, “Why won't people just get on board Oh, they're so negative, or they're so status quo protectors.” To think about that one area of your life where you're resistant to change, because it can help us have empathy for what others might be experienced for the change that we're leading.
It's that reflection, it's easy, sometimes I don't know is analogy but it's soon as you point the finger and know that there's always three fingers pointing back at you. And that reflection aspect of “Okay, before I judge or before I get frustrated with somebody else, how am I contributing to the situation maybe how can I flex and adjust to support that other person knowing that we come from different backgrounds, different cultural backgrounds, different upbringings, and there's things that we're going to adapt to more easily than others?”
Yes, absolutely. That's why we always start with how do you become a credible leader of change? And most of the time people will come to us and say, “Well, how do I get other people to do what it is I want them to do?” And I always say, it starts with looking in the mirror right? What behavior are you modeling and how are are you demonstrating openness to change and flexibility and the behavior that you're expecting from others?
How is intrapreneurship different than entrepreneurship?
They're very similar, and the characteristics and mindsets of the people, but they're different and where those characteristics and mindsets are getting applied. So entrepreneurs are innovative, they're disruptive, they go outside of the organizations or systems to drive change. Intrapreneurs bring that entrepreneurial spirit, that innovative mindset, that disrupter mentality and approach, but they change organizations from within. So I call them the unsung heroes of organizational change, because they're the ones who every day are implementing those strategic small, sustained action that really gets changed to stick.
So what I'm hearing you say is, it's being an influencer of change, it's shaking things up, whether you're doing it outside your organization and on your own business as an entrepreneurship, or you're doing it within the business as an intrapreneurship.
Absolutely. So again, it's similar characteristics and mindsets to those entrepreneurs, but really applying them in the context of our large, legacy institutions. So that we get the benefit of those existing organizations reach, right, their scale, their resources, their technical expertise, to have change happen in the world faster at scale, because these organizations already have all those things. So if we can get them operating more innovative, more equitably, more sustainably, more ethically, we're gonna get the world we want faster.
How to create change from within an organization
Intrapreneurs are not equated with a formal title. So anyone inside an organization, if they're willing, if they have that innovative entrepreneurial mindset, and they're willing to hone their influence skills and to do the work, they can be a driver of change inside the organization. So it's not tied to title at all.
So a couple of things that that we teach intrapreneurs are:
Where do you have direct control that you can act?
Where do you have indirect control where you can influence?
Where do you have no control?
You can stop spending all your time hanging out there, you know, waiting for other people to act or blaming other teams or you know, individuals for not getting things done or blaming regulations and the content of the event, you know, all those things are out of our control that can be really fun to like, spend time living in that space for a while. We want to just let that go. Because in almost every situation, there are things we can control, including, at the very least our response to it. So I always encourage people to do that kind of mapping and figure out where they have direct control and focus their energy their and on their indirect control or influence.
Look at that sphere of indirect control or influence.
One of the things I think, particularly maybe newer leaders inside organizations or folks who are earlier on in their career because you're not so locked into the way things have always been done, you have a lot of ideas, and you see a lot of opportunity, but oftentimes the approach to advancing those ideas or putting forward those suggestions is like, “Come on people, why aren't you seeing this?” We have a lot of impatience for it, we don't understand why everyone doesn't see the way the world the way we see it. One of the things we teach is how do you understand like, take the perspective of your boss, or the head of the departments, whoever you're trying to influence? How do you learn what their dreams desires, fears, motivations and anxieties are right, what are they held accountable for? What pressure are they under? What's their dream or desire for their team or their department? And how do you frame the opportunity, the idea, the suggestion, you want to put forward within that context, so they're more open to listening to you.
Common mistakes of intrapreneurs
#1 - Doing it alone
So when we're talking about change inside large organizations, it is too much for one person to carry, even if you're the CEO. So we want to find those champions inside our organizations who can help carry the burden and create that ripple effect, who can bring the different perspectives to the table, right, so that we make sure that we're seeing the proposed change from all the angles. And this is a big one, again, for those folks newer in their careers, or who maybe have less formal authority inside an organization but see an opportunity to do something different and better. So how do they find allies in that movement in that effort, who can maybe bring some of that formal authority that they might need to get some people on board? So one big mistake is going it alone trying to carry all the weight themselves. They also need that sort of outside circle of peers who can offer perspective, insight and support. So finding inside supporters and outside supporters.
#2 - Proclaim the vision for change once and be done
Like, if we just put it out there, everyone will see how great it is they'll just get on board, they'll start doing things differently immediately they'll adopt my idea right away. Well, that rarely if ever works. So instead, we need to adopt the campaigners commitment. So think about the candidate on the campaign trail, right? Who gives that same stump speech over and over day after day, week after week, month after month, with the same level of enthusiasm as the first time they delivered it. And when they get questions or push back, you know, acting as if that's the first time anyone's ever asked me that question. Thank you for raising that point, you know, so we need to have that campaigners commitment, not think it's a one and done.
#3 - Lead change like a New York City cab driver
If anyone's ever written in the back of a New York City cab, you know, the experience of slam on the gas slam on the brakes slam on the gas slam on the brake, like there's no in between, they just drive like foot to foot. So when we arrive at our destination, we feel probably a little sick to our stomachs may be scared and definitely jerked around, because we've had that, like, accelerate, immediately stop. So what a lot of change leaders do is they have a sense of urgency around the change they want, whether it's, you know, diversifying their senior leadership team, changing business practices to address climate change, or to mitigate the impacts of climate change. And they've probably had the idea stirring in their head for quite a while before they even articulate it to somebody. And so all of a sudden, they get it out there. And they're like, We got to go, you know, they slam on the gas and everyone's like, thrown forward as you propel. And then inevitably, they'll run into some pushback or some resistance, or maybe there was a something they didn't think through entirely, or they're little bumps in the road that just happened naturally. And they panic a little bit and they slam on the brakes. “Oh, no, maybe this was a bad idea.” “Oh, no, maybe we weren't ready.” “Oh, no, people are leaving” this is you know, and they slam on the brakes. So what we teach leaders is to be really clear on the why, why this change why now as a way to both help encourage others to adopt that same sense of importance, if not crisis, urgency mindset, but also to Deep End get really in touch with their own level of commitment. So that they're able to ease on the gas. When they hit bumps in the road encounter little resistance, maybe need to adapt the approach, they can ease off the gas and maybe slow down a little bit, but not slam on the brakes. So it's getting really clear on that, why getting clear on their commitment. And understanding that, you know, the slam on the gas slam on the brake really just leaves everybody feeling really jerked around and is not an effective way to get from point A to point B.
#4 - We have to get every single person in our organization on board and as excited about about the changes we are
We often start with trying to convince the most resistant person or group of people inside our organization and we over invest time, energy and effort in trying to convince change people who are never going to change. We think we have to have 100% engagement on this and we don't. I mean, there's plenty of research that shows that if you can even get the sort of right 2% of people inside an organization, you will spark change, and the ripple and the momentum will carry it across the rest of the organization. So don't start with the hardest folks to get on board and focus all your time and energy there, right, because it's just going to be a lot of wasted effort.
#5 - Believing all resistance is bad
Because it's actually not. I'll tell you, you definitely want to have over resistance when it comes to organizational change, not covert resistance. Because if it's over, if people are telling you what the chat, you know what they're upset about, or where they see the problems, you can do something about it. But if it's underneath the surface, where it becomes toxic, and you're they're actually sabotaging the change that you're leading well, you don't want that. So we always encourage leaders to think about resistance to change, like, when you go to the gym, right, and you do strength training, we use resistance to make ourselves stronger. Same thing, when it comes to change, we want that challenge, because it's going to make our ideas stronger, it's going to illuminate some blind spots that we might have, because we can't see everything, it's going to help the change be more successful. If we can view it as a gift, and get curious about what's really going on underneath it and what we can learn from it, rather than putting up our own resistance to the resistance, right, and then the wall just keeps getting bigger and bigger and like nobody gets anywhere.
3 things every intrapreneur needs to succeed
They need that campaigners commitment. They need to be able to repeat their vision for change over and over with the same level of enthusiasm.
They need that cadre of champions inside the organization and those peers outside the organization to help carry the weight and give them some insight and perspective.
Intrapreneurs need to succeed is the experimenters mindset. So folks who have that fixed mindset, who will wait for everything to be perfect before they take the first step, or what was the saying, I heard years ago, “wait for all the lights to be green before you leave the house.” All the traffic lights to turn green before you leave the house, that's not going to work. Intrapreneurs need the experimenters mindset. So we need to try things out, test things out, learn, iterate, adapt, play with it, have fun, try again.
Anyone can be an intrapreneur
I want to encourage everyone if this sounds exciting to you, if this sounds like the way you naturally think inside your organization, awesome. Don't wait for someone to invite you to be that intrapreneur or for you to get promoted to a certain level to be it, look for the opportunities where you can start honing the skills and practicing your internal influence now. Starting change with grand gestures can be pretty easy, right? Making the bold proclamation about, you know, again, 50% of our senior leaders will be women by 2022, or whatever the the bold proclamation is. It's that small, strategic sustained action over time, that actually makes change stick. So I'm not opposed to the bold proclamations to putting this big vision, this commitment out there, just make sure you follow it up with the resources, the effort, the investment in those small strategic sustained actions. And then the third thing I guess, I'll leave your listeners with is is a gift a suggestion that again, if this sounds like you, if you're ready to do those small strategic sustained action, you can sign up for our weekly nuggets for influential intrapreneurs. It's called Ingenious. So if you go to CSRcommunications.com/weekly, every week, you'll get an email in your inbox with a consumable tip technique tool, two minutes or less consumable, because who has time for anything more these days, so highly actionable. And I encourage folks to sign up for that if these sound like tools and techniques that you would like to apply inside your organization.
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